25 November 2011

This game does not get played enough, for various reasons but the main one being lack of people to play it with. However the SNAFU expansion does have quite a few single player scenarios, so I thought I would play them all through and make a scenario description and battle report of each one as they are played over the weeks to come. They won't be in any chronological order as they are all standalone scenarios. I will simply write an AAR after each played session.

These single player scenarios let you play as both Germans, US and UK troops. The card system is still used, but each scenario comes with instructions on how to build an appropriate deck of specific cards and then you flip cards at the start of each turn and either play them immediately according to instructions in the mission briefing or save them for later (you are allowed to save up to 2 cards in this scenario for instance).

In this scenario most cards included in the deck are "bad cards" meant to eat away at your command point supply, limiting how far you can move and how much you can do each turn to compensate the "AI" for being more straight forward than a human opponent. Each scenario comes with a "AI" description that tells you how each enemy unit type moves and how bad cards are played.

In "Unstoppable" the zombies and the Blitzhund will always move the shortest route towards the nearest US trooper. Cards that are bad for the US are always played starting with the model closest to the goal, any doubles are played on the model next in line and so on.
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“Unstoppable”: Background

The crazy von X family have bred an unstoppable werewolf, and it has been hounding a platoon of US APE soldiers in the narrow tunnels of Gibraltar. As the scenario starts there are only 3 guys left. The Sarge and two Grunts. In pursuit a steady swarm of 6 zombies per turn will enter the board through random entry points (there are 3) and of course the unstoppable "Blitzhund".

The Blitzhund uses the regular Blitzhund character card, but his wounds are increased to 4, and he rolls 1D6 at the start of each turn and adds the result to his action points! This makes him extremely fast and dangerous if not cut down by overwatch fire. Bullets can't kill this one, reducing the wounds to 0 will only temporarily knock him down. And at the start of its next turn it will power up and regain all wounds. The only way to kill it is to catch it in the generator room while you blow up the generator.
Killing the unstoppable Blitzhund is the objective of this scenario.

“Unstoppable”: AAR

Turn 1
At the start of each turn the human player rolls 1d6. On 1-5 the allies have initiative, on a 6 the Germans go first that turn. APE’s remnant squad wins the initiative and rushes onto the table. Using all their command points to move further into the complex and set up a nice overwatch covering all tunnels leading towards their current location. The few zombies that enter this turn are quickly cut down by overwatch fire.

Turn 2
Two cards are flipped and both are bad, the allies cough up the command points necessary to negate the worst one “V stimulator” which would make zombies harder to kill. They move further towards the center preparing themselves for the entry of the Blitzhund which will appear this very turn.

And so it does, and of course it is generated in one of the top locations close to our heroes, quickly rushing like mad towards them. Private Young covering assigned to the rearguard see the devilish creature round a corner and leap towards him. Clenching his teeth and trying to focus on his target, the tracers home in on the werewolf which gets cut down just a few feet from him. Looking back the Sarge mutters “that’s that, time to haul ass”.

Turn 3
Two cards are flipped, a minor injury gets applied to Sarge, and a medic kit gets put aside for later use. Sarge presses on, private Wright covering him while private Young decides to create a distraction and runs down another tunnel where he sets up a nice view of the long empty space – waiting with his finger on the trigger in overwatch. The tunnels echo with a chilling howl, meaning the damn beast is back on its feet. It rushes down the tunnels, following the scent of the person who put it down minutes ago.

The creature appears and private Young triumphantly raises his machinegun and gets a very nasty surprise. He’s out of ammo! The wolf wastes no time, rushes towards Young, as it crosses the opening space to the room where Sarge and private Wright are holed up it takes a bullet in the side but nothing that stops it. Reaching private Young it rips his face off and quickly turns around to investigate where the shot that hit it in the side had come from. Appearing in the doorway it takes another two bullets in the chest from private Wright but remains standing.

Turn 4
Two cards are flipped and a serious penalty towards the leading model is posing a threat. Not being able to play command points on the leading model would be the end of them, so the command points are used to pay away the effects after which Sarge moves closer towards the generator room and then positions himself so that he can cover the approach with overwatch fire. Private Wright realize he won’t be able to back away and go into overwatch so he puts down the Blitzhund with his machinegun and then runs down the tunnel to buy Sarge some precious time.

Again the relentless creature stands back up and picks up the chase down the tunnels, and again instead of a triumphant last stand, private Wright too runs out of ammo! The Blitzhund finishes him off quickly and finally goes after the last remaining unfamiliar scent. It catches up with Sarge as he moves towards the generator room, and takes two bullets in the chest before running out of steam – but still standing with 1 last wound. Hordes of zombies fill the corridors, and the sound of their growls slowly make their way forwards.

Turn 5
Two cards are flipped, and the Sarge sighs in relief, two cards that are actually in favor of the allies. He spends all his points to run as if his ass was on fire down the corridor and into the generator chamber where he turns around and goes into overwatch. He also uses the Wild Weasel device to plug the corridors with confused zombies stemming the tide of undead for a short while.

Sarge gets another lucky break as the Blitzhund only rolls a 1 on his additional action point D6, and 7 action points only brings him as close to his last victim as it possibly can but there are no action points left to spend on clawing at his opponents face!

Turn 6
Using the Allied Initiative, not taking any chances, Sarge pays off the bad cards that are flipped and then mows down the approaching creature after which he turns around and sprays the power generator with bullets until it explodes and rips the Blitzhund to pieces. Leaving bits and pieces of it sprayed on the walls and the floor.

The menace had been stopped. At least one of them, the moans of the undead closing on in his position got closer and closer. Sarge pulls out his “Victory cigar” from his satchel, lights it, and then raises his gun towards the open doors leading into the burning generator room with one hand while clenching his fire ax firmly in his other.

7 comments:

Peter Bogdasarian is a scenario writing genius, he wrote pretty much the whole SNAFU expansion and managed to write each scenario to be both different from anyone else and keep it fresh even though they are all played on a "locked" layout.

Nice AAR! I picked up Incursion during the sale, but have only managed a handful of games. That said, the game is really good! My favourite GW game of all time is Space Hulk, which this one leans heavily on, but it adds enough new stuff into the mix that it feels like quite a different game. I wasn't going to look for SNAFU until I'd played all the base scenarios...but I didn't realise that it brings solo scenarios! That changes a lot...!

Great reading. Thx for the report, it sounds like a relly great scenario! It something special about the possibility to play solo. Amazing how much it does to the experience to use real figures instead of the paper ones. It looks great.

I´ve been playing this Space Hulk clone online Alien Assault that also make you think hard about your every move. http://teardown.se/Its a great genre of games.